Confidentialised Unit Record Files (CURFs)are released in accordance with the conditions specified in the Statistics Determination section of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 (CSA). This ensures that confidentiality is maintained whilst enabling micro level data to be released. More information on the confidentiality practices associated with the CURFs can be found at the About CURF Microdata page.

For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

RELEVANCE

Microdata from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) survey are available as Basic CURFs and an Expanded CURF. The microdata on the Basic and Expanded CURF provide scores from exercises completed by respondents age 15-74 years, except for the Basic CURF (International Comparison version) which provides scores by respondents aged 16-65 years, to assess their literacy, numeracy and problem solving in a technology-rich environment skills, as well as a range of demographic data and information on educational attainment and skill use at work and in everyday life.

The level of detail provided is shown in the data item lists. The data item list for the Basic CURFs and Expanded CURF can be found by clicking on theDownloads tab of this product.

TIMELINESS

PIAAC was conducted throughout Australia from October 2011 to March 2012. It is the most recent survey of Adult Competencies conducted by the ABS, with the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALLS) survey conducted in 2006 and the Survey of Aspects of Literacy (SAL) survey in 1996.

Steps to confidentialise the data made available on the CURFs are taken in such a way as to maximise the usefulness of the content while maintaining the confidentiality of respondents selected in the survey. As a result it may not be possible to exactly reconcile all the statistics produced from the microdata with other published statistics. Further information about the steps taken to confidentialise the microdata is available through the following link: About CURF Microdata.

COHERENCE

Data previously released for ALLS and SAL are not directly comparable with PIAAC data due to;

changes in the interpretation of the skill levels

combining the prose and document literacy scales into a single literacy scale

the numeracy scores from ALLS being recalculated using a model to incorporate the results of the countries which participated in the second round of ALLS.

PIAAC expands on the previous surveys by assessing skills in the domain of 'problem solving in technology-rich environments'. This domain is a new edition to PIAAC and is not comparable to the problem solving scale derived in ALLS.

New data items in PIAAC collected information about skill use and practices at work, including:

the use of generic skills in the workplace including communication, presentation and team-working skills

Caution is advised when comparing results from ALLS and SAL with data from PIAAC. While the re-modelled data should facilitate comparability over time, analysis undertaken by the ABS and internationally has shown that in some cases the observed trend is difficult to reconcile with other known factors and is not fully explained by sampling variability. For more information see theExplanatory Notessection of Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), 2011-2012(cat. no. 4228.0). Also see the PIAAC Explanatory Notes (cat. no. 4228.0) for information on the comparability of the surveys with other ABS surveys.

Australian data was also published in an international report released by the OECD on 8 October 2013, compiling the results of the 24 countries that participated in the first round of PIAAC. This report also included time series data for countries who participated in the previous iterations of PIAAC. The report and other outputs from the survey are available from the OECD website at www.oecd.org/site/piaac/.

INTERPRETABILITY

The information within this product should be referred to when using the microdata. It contains information including Survey methodology, File structure, Using the CURF,Conditions of use and the Data item lists.

Unless otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia Licence together with any terms, conditions and exclusions as set out in the website Copyright notice. For permission to do anything beyond the scope of this licence and copyright terms contact us.